SMBC Comic: "The Humanities"

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/humanities

by bbor • 2 years ago

3 2 2 years ago

bbor• 2 years ago

Thought it was serious enough for this forum, and I’m assuming we all read Zach anyway. Personally I think this sort of thing is prevalent in engineering in general, but especially in Silicon Valley —- billions of dollars investment can tend to make one confident!

Thoughts? Good ways to respond while keeping the convo friendly and cooperative?

jfengel• 2 years ago

I really appreciate Zach saying it out loud. Especially to his audience, which likes to see itself as scientific.

I'd pair it with this XKCD:

https://xkcd.com/1520/

And with this SMBC:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21

They illustrate the internalized hierarchy, where the hard scientists are seen as better than the soft scientists. So the physicists must know everything about everything, and anything "softer" than biology must just be charlatanism.

Everybody remembers the great victory Alan Sokal had over "Social Text". But did anybody actually read Social Text? Can we name any of the people that it published? Scientists won a great war... over who? Did they even show up?

The foolish bits attract all the attention. But the vast majority of the humanities work is dull, boring, and rigorous. They're trying to solve important problems, and unlike physics, those problems aren't amenable to equations that fit on a single line.

SMBC Comic: "The Humanities"

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